Vlad's New Gesture to George.......

Russia sends warplanes on Venezuela training mission

A Russian Tu-160 strategic bomber. Photograph: Alexei Panov/AP

Two Russian strategic bombers have landed in Venezuela as part of military manoeuvres, the Interfax news agency reported today, at a time when US-Russian relations are at their most strained since the cold war.

Interfax cited a Russian defence ministry statement as saying the two Tu-160 strategic bombers landed today to carry out training flights over neutral waters in the next few days before returning to Russia.

The US sought to make light of that announcement. A US state department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said that if Russia really intended to send ships to the Caribbean, "then they found a few ships that can make it that far".

But, even small gestures can escalate to major conflicts......